Spectrum
by Shaille
Summary: A series of one-shots about Lux, Garen and Katarina, and how their lives tangle together. 'Sort of prequel' to my "Prism", but can be read alone. Characters and pairings will vary depending on story, but mostly it's Garen/Katarina and a bit of Lux/Ezreal.
1. The Deal

Hey! Glad you decided to come by. I'll try to keep my beginning author's notes short as possible, but there are some things that need to be said.

 **First** of all, this will be a collection of one-shots; the stories posted will usually have no significant connection (plot-wise) to each other and can be read separately. Also, the order of posting has nothing in common with the order of events (meaning that the events from any given story may occur, for example, a few months before the previous one) - if the time of action is important in a certain one-shot, I'll state it in the footnote A/N.

 **Secondly** , what all these stories **do** have in common is the main setting, including the characters - Garen, Lux and Katarina; besides, the universe is related to my other story, _**Prism**_ , but it's not required to read it to understand the one-shots (as I said, they will mostly be stand-alone stories).

The whole collection will be kept at the **T rating** , so there's a possibility that mild descriptions of violence, swearing and _mild_ scenes of sexual nature (not even M rated) will be present. If there is anything peculiar in a specific story, I will state that in the beginning A/N.

 **Disclaimer:** All characters and places mentioned belong to Riot Games.

 **Last thing:** I'd like to dedicate this whole collection to the amazing **Vay** (who prefers her nick to be cut short), who inspired me to write _Prism_ those two years ago.

* * *

 **The Deal**

The blade passed only millimeters from her right shoulder. She jumped to the left and rolled over in the grass, groaning as her hip crashed awkwardly against some rock that protruded out of the path. In the next second, she was back on her feet again and throwing blades at the opponent; she'd underestimated his swiftness as the broad sword moved to protect his head, successfully deflecting the flying daggers.

Katarina smirked; he could have just moved aside, her aim was _far_ from perfect.

"Show-off," she muttered as she threw another pair of daggers at his legs. This time Garen chose to jump, even though the massive armor was bound to weigh him down. She made use of his momentary distraction and sent another blade flying, this time directed right at his right eye.

He turned in mid air just in time to avoid the full impact; blood gushed from his ear as the razor-sharp blade grazed the side of his head.

For a moment, he seemed to examine the red liquid that now stained the front of his armor. Then he looked up at Katarina again.

"Was that supposed to hurt?" he mocked, earning a grin from the redhead. "You'd have to do far better than that, Noxian."

"Quit talking and fight, _Demacian_ ," she answered with a short laugh, crouching down slightly and ready to jump. "At least you get a little chance to shine in _physical_ acts... every now and then."

The compliment was slight, but it was enough to send him into a rushed mode again; he swung at her with his sword, only for her to jump out of his reach and sight. Dumbfounded, he looked around, searching for Katarina.

Her whereabouts became clear as Garen felt the stinging pain of two daggers pushed right between his shoulder blades. Damned finest Noxian steel, strong enough to push through his armor.

"You're getting _slow_ ," he heard her right behind his ear. The wicked smile on her face was almost audible. "I hope it's only... temporary. I'd hate it if you—"

Instead of responding himself, he let Katarina scream in pain. The sword in his twisted hand found target as it sank in tender flesh just above the woman's hip, at least five inches deep. She retreated quickly, holding her side. Her face was furious now.

"Is something wrong, Du Couteau?" he mocked again as Katarina fell to one knee, blood spilling from between her fingers. The wound was deep and possibly a fatal one. She looked up at him, disbelief clearly visible in her eyes. She tried to shunpo away from him, but her Summoner was still silenced after the attack. The hopelessness she felt because of that was one of the worst things in the League.

She'd rather have her hands tied, at least she could cut her way through some rope.

The sword swung down at her one last time and Katarina felt her soul being severed from her body - a feeling she'd never quite enjoyed.

She watched helplessly as her base got invaded.

oOOo

Garen waited outside the locker room when she got out.

"Oh, get _lost_ ," she groaned, punching his shoulder as he moved to stand in her way. Really, she was furious after the match; especially after the rather heated argument she'd just had with her sister in the showers. Instead of taking her advice, though, the big guy just grinned down at her. "Seriously, Crownguard, leave me alone _now_ or I'll cut that goofy smile out of your face."

"Uh-uh, that's not what the _deal_ said." He crossed his arms across the broad chest.

Whenever Katarina tried to get past him, he stepped into her way again.

"What are you, five!?" she shouted as she bumped into his shoulder again while trying to slip past the man, farther into the corridor. _Of course_ it wasn't what the deal said. But the deal was supposed to be won by her, and as much as she hated to admit it, Garen _did_ get a better KDA score.

He looked down at her again, but this time the grin turned into a frown. He clasped a big hand around her arm, earning a very feline growl.

"It's just a match," he said, as if that wasn't clear enough.

With an exaggerated huff, she shrugged out of his grip.

"I know it's just a fucking _match_ , do you really think I'm angry about _that_?" This time it was her who crossed her arms across her chest. She bit down angrily on her lower lip as she looked him straight in the eye. They were fighting again; this time it was about who would be the first one to look away. "I know how to lose one with dignity," she snarled at last, still not taking her eyes off him.

"Oh, I'm _sure_ you do," he mocked her again and she could almost feel a vein popping on her forehead. Oh, how she wanted to wipe that crooked smile from his face right now. "You're just very good at hiding—"

"Shut up," she cut him off, punching the broad (even without his armor on) chest half-heartedly. He hardly even moved.

 _Losing with dignity_ , a voice said at the back of her mind. She cast a quick glance down the corridor, and then back at the closed locker room door behind her. There was nobody, just the two of them.

 _You could just kill him on the spot and nobody would know_ , said another voice.

Quickly, hurriedly even, she climbed onto her toes and, catching him by the collar of his untied shirt (that he probably thought she'd find rather alluring), she pulled him in for a kiss. To the cheek. Lasting about a third part of a second.

"There," she said as she let go of him and stepped away, crossing her arms again. Though she wasn't sure how it was physically possible, his smile got even goofier now. "The _deal_. Now get lost."

Garen moved to the side of the corridor to lean against the wall, letting her through. With the anger almost visible in little puffs of smoke from her nostrils, she brushed past him.

She could still feel his gaze on her back, just as every trained assassin would.

But it wasn't _half_ as bad as she'd like it to be.

* * *

 **A/N:** Thank you for reading, hope you enjoyed this short first installment. I have no idea how often I'm going to update this (those shorts practically write themselves, but only when I'm in a proper mood); as I said at the beginning, the next stories won't pick up where this one's left off. They will be just scenes from Garen's, Katarina's or Lux's (or any mix of the three) lives up to the moment where _**Prism**_ occurs. Again, like I said, reading _Prism_ is not required, but I invite you to do so; however, brace yourself for sadness.

If you liked the story (or not), please leave a review. If there's anything you'd like to see (any particular scene or event), send me a PM and I'll try to do my best to fulfill your wish :)


	2. Watching

Hello again! Another short _'slice of life'_ kind of story, this time with Lux in the spotlight.

 **Disclaimer:** All characters and places mentioned belong to Riot Games.

* * *

 **Watching**

"What are you looking at?"

Lux jumped in place and let a short scream out, before clasping one hand over her mouth and the other over the heart beating rapidly in her chest. It was _just_ like Ezreal to sneak up on her from behind, so stealthily she hadn't even heard a single rustle of his clothing. But how he managed to get _this_ close to her right now was far beyond her comprehension; the boy just _whispered_ in her ear.

And the boy was now clutching his nose tightly, hissing in pain.

"Gods, Ezreal, I'm so sorry!" she uttered hurriedly as she laid a hand on his shoulder. Her jumping up made her own shoulder go for a nice, clear collision with the blonde boy's face - and he was just as unprepared for her sudden attack as she was for his sudden assault.

"No, no, it's fine," he said, fakely cheerily, waving it off. "Still in one piece." She was relieved to see no blood gushing from his nostrils as he took the hand away. "You sure are jumpy today, Lux. Are you alright?"

The worried puppy-face that accompanied the end of the sentence made something inside her melt. Still, she wasn't quite sure whether a boy _her age_ should make her feel just like a little _kitten_ would, though.

"I'm— I'm okay, thank you," she hesitated just briefly, but Ezreal seemed to catch the gentle change in her tone.

Curious, he peeked above her shoulder to the window she'd been staring through, overlooking various places belonging to the Institute's grounds. There was nothing to be seen, though; just a few Yordle champions gathered around the fountain, talking and making the best of the sunny day. In the garden, he could just barely make out Zyra's silhouette as she attended the first flowers to bloom this spring; not too far away from her, Ezreal was sure he could see Maokai talking to the tree saplings in the orchard, a regular habit of his this time of the year. Some champions were running around and flexing on the ground in the outdoor gym, what he was actually about to go and do before he saw the blonde Demacian standing alone by the windowsill.

"Um, so..." he started after a while, seeing as there was nothing worth noticing outside. He tried to figure why the girl would just stand there and watch the day go by. "Maybe you'd like to go out?"

Suddenly, Lux's face turned a bright shade of red, and the sharp intake of breath got stuck in her throat. Ezreal looked at her in confusion for just a second, before the realization hit him like a stone to the head. For a moment, he just stood there opening and closing his mouth, but no sound came out.

"No, I— I didn't mean it like that, Lux," he stuttered at last. The girl was facing the floor now, so he crouched a bit to read her expression - and right now, it was a cross between embarrassed and sad; Ezreal was in way, _way_ too deep. "I— I mean, I would! I _totally_ would, if you would!"

The Demacian looked up at him again, and her expression turned into pure confusion. She wasn't blushing anymore, and it seemed that her initial embarrassment has gone out the slightly opened window.

"Are you asking me out on a date?" she questioned finally, eyes squinted slightly, all traces of nervousness gone from her voice at once, leaving Ezreal dumbstruck. Really, he had known this girl for almost two months now, but she was still a giant mystery to him.

He coughed.

"I was— actually, I was just asking whether you'd like to go out _of the building_ and enjoy the nice weather with me."

"Like... on a date?"

"Like..." Ezreal hesitated for a second.

There was only one chance to not screw this up, so he had to play it right. He hadn't thought about it before - he would always be too occupied with finding new adventures to notice girls, and his uncle would always say he should take his time while he still had it - but the Demacian was nice. Really nice - and good looking, too.

He liked her. She quite possibly liked him.

He smiled charmingly. "Yeah, like on a date."

She stared at her feet for a good few moments and he was sure he _didn't_ play it right.

"Alright," she said quietly, but not in a sad way. She seemed rather content with his offer for the afternoon. "Just let me go to my room and change into some more comfortable clothes, I don't want to go around in this."

She motioned to her traditional Demacian armor that she wore to the matches. _Right_ , Ezreal thought. She must have just stopped here on the way from the summoning chamber. Mystery solved.

"Sure thing." He saluted, earning a very nice smile in return. "I'll wait for you downstairs, Lady Crownguard."

With that, he ran down the corridor and skipped the flight of stairs in one, quite impressive jump. Lux watched him go, but as soon as he was out of her sight, she turned back to the window.

Her brother was still there, sparing with Prince Jarvan in the outdoor gym, just as they were before Ezreal interrupted her. _Everything_ seemed to be just like a few minutes ago - birds still chirping by the fountain, flowers blooming in the garden, people running, sun shining. _Everything_ , except for one tiny detail, so irrelevant that it went unnoticed by most. A figure lurking in the shadow of a tree, watching her brother's efforts.

The blonde quickly scanned the whole scene, but Katarina Du Couteau had to vanish into thin air during her brief talk with Ezreal.

* * *

 **A/N:** So I guess this is probably not much longer than two months since Lux joined the League at the point of this one-shot; that said, she has surely already met Katarina (or at least knows what she looks like and who she is) (oh come on, there's like barely over a hundred champions, _of course_ she'd meet Katarina over the course of two months) and is getting suspicious over the Noxian's apparent _fascination_ with her brother.

This is the second one-shot and it already has next to nothing in common with the first one, _sigh_. I suppose that's just how such thing are bound to go and I will eventually stray even further; my main focus will always remain on Katarina, Garen and Lux (occasional Ezreal as I kind of set the blondes together here), but I suppose throwing a random champion here and there won't hurt anyone.


	3. The Locker Room

Hello after a break! This time I present you one of the first encounters between Lux and Katarina.

 **Disclaimer:** All characters and places mentioned belong to Riot Games.

* * *

 **The Locker Room  
**

The flickering light in the locker room was very, _very_ unsettling.

Lux ran her fingers through her wet hair, trying to untangle all knots; she immediately regretted forgetting to bring her brush. It probably sat happily on her dressing table, back in her room a few floors above the locker rooms.

The Institute wasn't such a bad place, when one got used to it. It reminded her of the boarding school she went to - only there were more guys here (even _one_ man would still be more than an all-girls academy), most of the people were older than her and there weren't any lessons.

And, of course, there were _void creatures_ in the basement, but that she tried not to think about.

Suddenly, the silence of the room was broken by what sounded to be furious, wet-feet stomping.

"What the hell was _that_?" The door of her locker slammed close right before her face and she was so thankful she managed to move her fingers out of the way. She looked to her right to see a very angry, very wet and very _Noxian_ \- judging from her distinctive accent - girl glaring at her.

Glaring _down_ at her, she noted. Sheesh, the girl was a good few inches taller than her, and Lux didn't consider herself to be short.

"What the hell was _what_?" she snapped back, standing her ground by turning to face the other girl and readjusting the towel wrapped around her torso.

She took the girl's appearance in; just like Lux, the only thing she wore right now was a white, Institute-of-War-issued towel. Water was dripping from her deep crimson hair down the curve of her neck, the droplets rolling down her rapidly raising chest and disappearing as soon as they reached the rim of the towel just above her breasts. Lux looked the Noxian straight in the eye - and that's when she noticed it. The scar.

She immediately recognized the girl as Katarina Du Couteau - the Sinister Blade, a Noxian champion she just had her first match together with, though it was hard to tell without her trademark clothing. A champion she'd heard volumes of before she even came to the Institute - most of it very bad stuff.

But what could she possibly do to enrage the girl so? Did she accidentally drop a bar of soap in the showers and Katarina slipped on it?

"You didn't shield me from Caitlyn," the Noxian barked through gritted teeth, crossing arms over her chest. Wet hair was sticking to the side of her face, making her look ridiculous and not intimidating at all. More than anything, she reminded Lux of a wet, long-haired cat that hated every minute of its wet life.

"Oh, that," she said and let a smile enter her face - even when she saw nothing but a scowl on the other girl's. "I tried to, but my Summoner—"

"Don't you _my Summoner_ me," she growled, stepping closer to Lux, who was reconsidering her 'stand my ground' policy at this point. "If not for that, we might have won the match."

Lux almost rolled her eyes. So Katarina _died_ , big deal. They were falling behind long before that, as soon as Ezreal lost all connection with his Summoner and couldn't even leave the base, leaving Lux alone on their lane and not really able to defend it from Caitlyn and- and whatever the _Radiant Dawn's_ name was. Truth be told, she didn't see much of the Noxian throughout the whole match, they didn't even exchange a single word. Katarina came to Lux's lane _once_ , and that was five minutes before the end.

This was actually the first time she had the chance to look at her face for longer than a second. It looked much different without blood splattered across her cheeks.

"I don't care if you're _new,_ " Katarina continued, completely oblivious to Lux's inner turmoil of thoughts, "if you don't know what to do, just stick to the damned Proving Grounds."

"I know what to do," Lux disagreed, furrowing her brows. She hated Noxians. And she hated verbal arguments with no clothes on even more.

Katarina eyed her for a second, leaning her shoulder against the lockers. Lux almost shivered; those things were metal and freaking _frigid_ , yet the older - at least she assumed she was older, she didn't get round to reading everyone's files in such detail yet - girl seemed pretty unfazed by that.

"You're Crownguard's sister, aren't you?" she asked after a while, her piercing eyes never leaving Lux's face. The blonde felt the skin on the back of her neck tingle; the way Katarina spelled her surname was revolting, considering the weird Noxian accent and the pure _acid_ lacing every single letter. And she thought the other sister was the venomous one.

"Yes," she answered shortly, not feeling obligated to elaborate. "Now, if you'd excuse me—" She tried forcing her locker's door open again, but the girl was still leaning against it. Lux sighed in defeat, but she wasn't quite done yet. "Could you move?"

She did move away, but as soon as Lux opened the door and as much as glanced inside it, Katarina slammed it shut again, making a show of leaning against it with her arm outstretched, smirking down at the blonde Demacian with so much spite in her eyes that she immediately knew where the _Sinister_ part came from.

And Gods, there had never been a time in her life when Lux wanted to just _punch_ somebody in the face so much.

When Katarina finally removed her hand from the locker door, Lux almost slammed it in the older girl's face from tugging at it so hard. She didn't, however, as the Noxian moved closer to her by then - and the blonde could swear she didn't see Katarina move. Which was _a lot_ , coming from a Light Mage.

"I'm gonna _crush_ you," she whispered in Lux's ear, sending shivers down the Demacian's neck and side. Lux blushed deeply when she realized the only thing between them now, as Katarina rested her arm upon the younger girl's shoulder and pressed their chests together, was a double layer of thin, disposable towels. "You will wish you never came here in the first place."

And with that, she moved away - again, a motion so quick Lux's eyes barely registered it. Before she knew, Katarina was already yards away from her, disappearing around the corner to another part of the locker room. Lux only had a chance to catch a glimpse of the Noxian's swaying hips as she went. And, as much as she despised the girl for her actions, namely ones like that just a few seconds ago, and firmly believed that Garen should do so as well - if there was no such encounter between the two of them, then the pure fact that she spoke _Noxian_ was enough - she couldn't really blame her brother for being attracted to Katarina Du Couteau.

Even if he didn't want to admit it. And even if _Lux_ didn't want to admit it.

With a sigh, she turned back to the locker. The room was now strangely empty with just her inside, the only sound beside her deep breathing being the constant dripping of water from the showers. When she looked inside the metal locker, her eyes landed on a paper schedule on the door and a smile bigger than the scowl she saw on Katarina entered her face.

She had another match later this evening; this time, she was going _against_ the crimson haired Noxian.

* * *

 **A/N:** Thank you for reading. This is right after Lux's first actual match (I believe there would be some 'mock matches' to test her, show her what a connection with a Summoner looks like and perhaps show her around the Fields so she wouldn't get lost on a real match). That said, I think it might be her first week at the Institute; she was too occupied with everything to read the champion's files in detail and is still distracted by everything (even if she makes it seem different in front of Katarina), that's why she didn't recognize the Noxian when she first saw her. At least she knows her name (unlike Leona's).

Gonna go back to Garen in the next one!


End file.
